Wiley Windows Vista Just the Steps For Dummies 978-0-471-78685-6 User Manual

Shut Down Your Computer

1. Choose Start and then click the arrow to the right of the

Lock button.

2. In the resulting shortcut menu shown in Figure 1-13,

choose Shut Down to shut the computer down com-
pletely; if you want to reboot (turn off and turn back on)
your computer, choose Restart.

If you’re going away for a while but don’t want to have to go
through the whole booting up sequence complete with Windows
Vista music when you return, you don’t have to turn off your com-
puter. Just click the Hibernate button instead (in Step 2) to put your
computer into a kind of sleeping state where the screen goes black
and the fan shuts down. When you get back, just click your mouse
button or press Enter, or in some cases (especially on some laptops)
press the Power button; your computer springs to life, and whatever
programs and documents you had open are still open.

If your computer freezes up for some reason, you can turn it off in a
couple of ways. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete twice in a row, or press the
power button on your CPU and hold it until the computer shuts down. 

Don’t simply turn off your computer at the power source unless you
have to because of a computer crash. Windows Vista might not start
up properly the next time you turn it on if you don’t follow the
proper shutdown procedure.

Figure 1-13: The menu used to turn off or restart your computer

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Shut Down Your Computer

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